


underground, the story continued

by amosanguis



Series: crossovers and fusions ftw [60]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Watership Down (2018), Watership Down - Richard Adams
Genre: Angst, Finn is Bigwig, Gen, just go with it, light body horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-01 22:08:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17252270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amosanguis/pseuds/amosanguis
Summary: There’s a name on Finn’s tongue. A name that tastes of sweetgrass and feels like a wire tightening around his throat.





	underground, the story continued

**Author's Note:**

> \--Title is from the book _Watership Down_ by Richard Adams  
> \--I use Bigwig's Lapine name, Thlayli, because it reads better.  
> \--This fic is brought to you by wine and John Boyega's amazing voice work for BBC's version of _Watership Down_ and it takes place vaguely at some point during TFA.

-z-

 

There’s a name on Finn’s tongue. A name that tastes of sweetgrass and feels like a wire tightening around his throat.

A name he loves.

A name he fears.

 

He looks down at his hands and wonders why they feel like they’re the wrong shape.

Rey and Poe and the General say it’s something to do with the brainwashing so he shrugs it off, pretends the ache in his shoulder is new and not the result of some injury that he doesn’t remember – rage, darkness, the _need_ to defend – that he _refuses_ to remember.

 

Then he shoots awake in the dead of night – sweating, reaching for his neck, choking and gasping for air – a voice ringing in his ears screams a name, the one he’s forgotten, the one he’s been trying not to remember, for that way lies nothing but sadness: _Thlayli! You’re in a—Thlayli—what did they teach you in the—_

Finn— _Thlayli_ puts his head in his hands and feels himself shake apart as the memories hit him.

He remembers Sandleford and the journey afterwards, Watership and the battle with the Efrafans; he remembers, many winters after that, laying down to meet the Black Rabbit just as Frith was sinking below the horizon – and then he remembers that it wasn’t the Black Rabbit who’d come for him.

He doesn’t know how it was done.

He doesn’t care to know.

He’s a rabbit in the shape of a man and it _feels wrong_. He carries man’s smell and he can speak man’s language and, while he may now have man’s lifespan, it may still be cut short as he fights man’s wars for them. For is that not why he was taken? As he was a fighter as a rabbit, now he’s a fighter as a man.

With a sudden desperation, he jumps out of his bunk and runs outside – the moon on this planet isn’t the one he’s familiar with, there is no Inlé here – but it’ll do. He runs until there’s fresh air on his face and a breeze against his skin and then he falls to his knees, not caring who might be watching (on a military base, there’s always someone awake and moving around), and he prays.

He prays to Frith, may he hear him all the way out here, and to the Black Rabbit, should He even recognize Thlayli as he is now. He prays for guidance and for answers, whispering aloud in Lapine as he falls forward onto his elbows, his forehead pressed hard against his clenched fists. The wind picks up around him, making him feel the wetness on his cheeks.

Then the wind is blocked and there’s a hand on his back and Poe’s voice is coming to him.

For all that he owes the man, Thlayli can’t look at him now. He fights the rage and indecision and confusion building in him – but he’s never been good in dealing with these things, so he falls back on old habits. He rears back and before Poe can think to move, Thlayli lashes out with a fist.

But Poe doesn’t fight back, he just moves out of Thlayli’s range, moving more on instinct than thought as he tries to recover from the blow.

“Finn, wait—” he starts.

But Thlayli is back on him again, because Poe’s the closest thing to he can hit. He moves quick as lightning, quicker than Keehar had descended on the Efrafans, and he strikes a second, then a third time. He’s pulling back for a fourth hit when he’s tackled to the ground by another of the Rebels, Snap by the scent of him. But Snap is nothing; Thlayli’s fought far bigger and far more dangerous creatures than him.

Then it’s not just Snap, it’s another Rebel and then another and Thlayli readies to take them all down – he was ready years ago to see the Black Rabbit, if this is his second chance at that then he welcomes it; maybe they’ll think he’s fallen back to the stormtrooper training, that the Dark’s come to reclaim him. Whatever it is they think – he never finds out because there’s a sudden pain in the back of his head and his vision lurches and it all goes dark.

 

When Thlayli wakes, he’s bound and the first thing he sees is Poe slumped in the chair beside him, his cheek swollen and his lip cut.

“Are you you again?” General Organa’s voice cuts through him like a shot, making Thlayli startle and look at her.

“I gather I haven’t been _me_ in some time,” he says.

She cocks her head to the side and lifts an eyebrow – waiting for an explanation.

Thlayli searches for the right words, but he can’t find them in either of the languages he knows. So he simply says, “I remembered. Who I was Before. I remembered everything.”

“And who were you Before?” she asks.

“Not this,” is all Thlayli can bring himself to say, gesturing to himself with his hands as best he’s able given his restraints.

“Are you okay now?” she asks, after a moment of assessing him and his words.

Thlayli looks away from her, turns his head away from where Poe’s (now pretending to be) asleep, and lets his silence be her answer. It’s discourteous and completely out of line – but Thlayli’s tired, so he prays he’ll be forgiven. If not, he’s not sure he can be bothered much to care.

The General doesn’t push the issue, but she doesn’t remove his restraints, before she leaves the room. As soon as she’s gone, Poe sits up.

“Whatever happened,” he says, “you can talk to me, okay? Or, Rey. If you want.”

Thlayli looks over at Poe and once more he feels like weeping, but he knows that if he does, if he loses himself to it – he may never come back from it.

“I’m sorry for hitting you,” Thlayli says instead. “But I think things will be different between us from now on.”

“They don’t have—”

Thlayli looks away and closes his eyes until Poe gets the hint and leaves.

 

-z-

 

End.

**Author's Note:**

> Then they talk everything through and help Rey fight Kylo and then they kiss and Everything Is Fine.


End file.
